People

Principal Investigator Social Scientist
Margaret Holloway is Emeritus Professor in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Hull, UK. She entered academia after an early career as a social worker and, following periods at Manchester and Sheffield Universities, was Professor of Social Work at Hull from 2004- 2015. From 2009 – 2013 she was Social Care Lead on the government’s National End of Life Care Programme. Her first research (for PhD studies in the late 1980s) was into philosophical and spiritual issues in death, dying and bereavement and she retained this thread throughout her academic career, teaching and researching in both the broad fields of death, dying and bereavement and contemporary spirituality studies. Following a study of Spirituality in Contemporary Funerals, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, she is now Principal Investigator on another AHRC-funded study, Remember Me. The Changing Face of Memorialisation which will culminate in a conference and public exhibition in the Hull 2017 City of Culture. She is editor of the British Journal of Social Work and Chair of the 2016 4th International Conference of the British Association for the Study of Spirituality, Can Spirituality transform our world? New frontiers in understanding and exploring contemporary spiritualities. Her work to date is brought together in the books, Negotiating Death in Contemporary Health and Social Care (2007 Policy Press), Spirituality and Social Work (2010 Palgrave) and Pathways Through Care at the End of Life (2014 Jessica Kingsley Publishers).

Dr Louis BaileyResearch Fellow
Dr Louis Bailey is a Research Fellow on ‘Remember Me’ and is leading the Trans case study, ‘Who Were They? Trans People and Memorialisation’. His research explores issues of stigma and resilience in relation to transgender experiences across the life course and in relation to ageing and end of life. He was co-author of the Trans Mental Health Study (2012; recipient of the GIRES Research Award) and has published papers on health and social inequalities, suicide prevention, bereavement and memorialisation.

Outside of academia, Louis is the co-founding director of ArtMob, a fledgling visual arts organisation promoting the work of trans and gender variant artists, and his own visual and written practice explores aspects of physical and mental endurance in the face of stigma, illness and trauma. His poetry has been published by Beautiful Dragons Press and he is currently working on his first collection of flash fiction titled ‘Faces of Illness’.

Dr Lisa DikomitisCo-Investigator
Social AnthropologistDr Lisa Dikomitis is Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Health at Keele University. Prior to joining the School of Medicine at Keele she held a permanent position as Lecturer in Social Research in the School of Social Sciences at th University of Hull (2014-16). Dr Dikomitis also worked at the Hull York Medical School (2012-14) and at Ghent University in Belgium (2004-12).

Dr Dikomitis’ work is strongly interdisciplinary and is based on extensive fieldwork in Cyprus, Belgium and the United Kingdom. The first strand of her work is concerned with refugee and migrant communities. She has examined a Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot refugee community which are linked by their histories of displacement to a single village. Her research revealed a moral economy with different histories of suffering and competing ideas of justice that makes this village contested space and renders it a ‘place of desire’ for both groups. Publications include the monograph, Cyprus and Its Places of Desire: Cultures of Displacement among Greek and Turkish Cypriot Refugees (IB Tauris, 2012), which was described by reviewers as a ‘significant contribution to the sociological understanding of forced migration’ (Peter Loizos) and ‘one of the best ethnographies written on Cyprus in recent years’ (The Cyprus Review). Since 2012 Dr Dikomitis has developed a second research strand which revolves around the social and cultural dimensions of health and illness.

Dr Marcin BiernatHonorary Research Associate
Dr Marcin Biernat is working on Case study B: Countries old and new: memorialisation among Polish migrants in Hull with Dr Lisa Dikomitis.

He is a graduate of Jagiellonian University, Poland holding MA degree (magister) in Sociology. His PhD is also in Sociology (Jagiellonian Univeristy). In his thesis he has conducted a research on Irish cultural and national identity. His research interests include collective memory, collective identity, national pride, local communities and new media. Currently he is also conducting a research on collective memory and identity in local community in Poland.

Dr Michael DrakeCo-Investigator
Sociologist Michael Drake led the project research focused on the framing and representation of private grief in the context of public mourning, and on the social identity of the soldier and the military institution in the reporting and social commentary of military deaths in late modernity in the UK between Nov 2015 until August 2017 when he passed away suddenly (please see news for further details).

Dr Nick EvansCo-InvestigatorHistorian
Nick Evans is a Lecturer in Diaspora History at the Wilberforce Institute and the History Department. Nick is investigating the process of memorialisation of the British diaspora, both at home and abroad, in seven key places of Britain’s former Empire.

Rev Dr Andrew GoodheadChaplain St Christopher’s Hospice
Andrew Goodhead joined St Christopher’s as Chaplain in January 2005, completing his doctoral research in 2007. He is a Methodist Minister with 14 years Church based experience gained in several localities throughout the UK, both urban and rural. In his role at St Christopher’s Andrew is concerned to ensure that all End of Life Care professionals have the skills and confidence to offer spiritual assessment and ongoing support to all patients and their families. He has a particular interest in the concept of spiritual pain as a way of understanding spiritual need. For patients with faith needs Andrew is developing the pastoral and religious role of the Spiritual Care Lead. Andrew graduated in 2014 with the King’s College, London, MSc in Palliative Care. His dissertation explored the experiences and attitudes of community clergy in caring for dying people.

Andrew has published his thesis with Wipf & Stock (USA) under the title A Crown and a Cross; the Origins, Development and Decline of the Methodist Class Meeting in Eighteenth Century England. In November 2010, Mortality published the results of Andrew’s research into memorialisation: A textual analysis of memorials written by bereaved individuals and families in a hospice context. In July 2011, The European Journal of Palliative Care published Physiotherapy in Palliative care: the interface between function and meaning, this is a philosophical examination of how physical ability affects the way in which meaning can be made. His most recent paper, (accepted by Palliative Medicine) based on his MSc dissertation study is ‘I think you just learnt as you went along’ – Community clergy’s experiences of and attitudes towards caring for dying people: a pilot study [in process of publication]. Andrew is a co facilitator for the Spirituality Education Group on the European Association of Palliative Care and a member of the Spirituality Taskforce of the EAPC.

Dr Miroslava HukelovaResearch Fellow
Dr Miroslava (Mirka) Hukelova has been involved in quantitative & qualitative research, and survey data analysis, for over 8 years. She worked with private and public sector organizations and a number of charities in North West, exploring the role of nationalism in people’s perceptions, identities and belonging. Mirka was awarded a PhD in Politics from the University of Liverpool, examining Muslim identities from a comparative perspective, using the examples of Britain, Germany and the Czech Republic. During her PhD she also worked as a Research Associate on an ESRC/MRC/BBSRC research project (Enigma) at the University of Manchester. Her current research interests focus on how religious and cultural experiences contribute to one’s identity in contemporary globalised world. Mirka works as a Research Fellow on the AHRC research project ‘Remember Me. The changing Face of Memorialisation.’

Dr Yvonne InallResearch Associate
Dr Yvonne Inall was recently awarded a PhD in History from the University of Hull, undertaking an archaeological examination the role of spearheads in Iron Age Britain. As part of her doctoral thesis Yvonne conducted a review of British Iron Age burial practices, with a particular focus on martial burials. She is now assisting Dr Malcolm Lillie with the long durée component of the Remember Me Project: Deep in Time: Meaning and Mnemonic in Archaeological and Diaspora Studies of Death.

Dr Malcolm LillieCo-Investigator Archaeologist
Malcolm Lillie has been an archaeologist for 30 years. He currently integrates two specialist areas, the study of earlier prehistoric human remains and the study of wetlands into his research activities. Since 1999 Malcolm has undertaken studies of human remains from Britain, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Turkey and other regions of Europe, which are aimed at understanding social structures, diet and pathology in archaeological populations. Death and Memorialisation are fundamental aspects of his work in human remains analysis and the current project offers an opportunity for this area for research to be refined in an exciting new direction by linking the attitudes of the past directly into the recent historic and modern contexts.

Ms Liz NicolAssociate Professor, Photography Plymouth University
Liz Nicol has an established career as both teacher and photographer. In the early 1980’s she moved to the South West to lead photography on the Fine Art Course at what was Exeter College of Art & Design, now Plymouth University where she became Head of the School of Art & Media, she initiated and led MADr (Media Art & Design research group). Her focus is now on teaching and research, leading the Masters in Photography programmes.

Liz is currently involved in several cross-disciplinary projects: a curatorial project, ‘Reflecting the Rural’ with agriculturist Martyn Warren, ‘Lagoon Studies’ with ecologist Jane da Mosto and with this project ‘Remember Me. The Changing Face of Memorialisation’ with Margaret Holloway and the team. The starting point for contributing to this project was initially based on personal experience that has grown into questions about what the photograph can portray about memorialisation and how the visual can sit with other textual information.

As a fine art photographer Liz has established several different working methodologies, these include journeying and collecting objects through which the autobiographical and the everyday are explored. Water is a common thread that runs through her practice, whether photographing the sea from the train window, or photographing from her canoe or simply mapping the coast and coastal environment.

Prof Angela McCarthyConsultant ResearcherUniversity of Otago
Prof McCarthy is acting as a consultant on the British Diaspora stream of the study, collaborating with Dr Nick Evans.

Professor Suzanne SchwarzConsultant ResearcherUniversity of Worcester
Prof Schwarz is acting as a consultant on the British Diaspora stream of the study, collaborating with Dr Nick Evans.

Dr Caroline OliverResearch AdvisorDr Caroline Oliver is Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Roehampton. She is acting as a research advisor to the project case study “Countries Old and New”.

Blog Contributors

Regular Contributors

Members of the Remember Me Project research team make regular contributions to our blog. You can view their profile and links to blog posts they have written on this page.

Dr Louis BaileyResearch Fellow

Louis Bailey is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Remember Me project, leading the Case Study ‘Who Were They? Trans Identities and Memorialisation’ Louis has a special interest in issues around gender identity and variance and has worked with and for the trans community for a number of years.

Dr Marcin Biernat is working on Case study B: Countries old and new: memorialisation among Polish migrants in Hull with Dr Lisa Dikomitis. He is a graduate of Jagiellonian University, Poland holding MA degree (magister) in Sociology and a PhD in Sociology (Jagiellonian Univeristy), focussed on Irish cultural and national identity. His research interests include collective memory, collective identity, national pride, local communities and new media. Currently he is also conducting a research on collective memory and identity in local community in Poland.

Lisa Dikomitis leads on Case Study B ‘Countries Old and New: Memorialisation among Polish Migrants in Hull’. Dr Lisa Dikomitis is Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Health at Keele University. Prior to joining the School of Medicine at Keele she held a permanent position as Lecturer in Social Research in the School of Social Sciences at th University of Hull (2014-16).

Nick Evans is a Lecturer in Diaspora History at the Wilberforce Institute and the History Department. Nick is investigating the process of memorialisation of the British diaspora, both at home and abroad, in seven key places of Britain’s former Empire.

Andrew Goodhead leads research on the case study ‘Freewriting in Palliative Care and Bereavement’ Andrew Goodhead joined St Christopher’s as Chaplain in January 2005, completing his doctoral research in 2007. He is a Methodist Minister with 14 years Church based experience gained in several localities throughout the UK, both urban and rural. In his role at St Christopher’s Andrew is concerned to ensure that all End of Life Care professionals have the skills and confidence to offer spiritual assessment and ongoing support to all patients and their families.

Margaret Holloway is Emeritus Professor in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Hull, UK. She is editor of the British Journal of Social Work Her work to date is brought together in the books, Negotiating Death in Contemporary Health and Social Care (2007 Policy Press), Spirituality and Social Work (2010 Palgrave) and Pathways Through Care at the End of Life (2014 Jessica Kingsley Publishers).

Miroslava (Mirka) Hukelova is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Remember Me project, working on the case studies: ‘Heroes and Loved Ones’, ‘Celebrating the Life’, and ‘Displaying Self’. Mirka has worked with private and public sector organizations and a number of charities, exploring the role of nationalism in people’s perceptions, identities and belonging. Mirka was awarded a PhD in Politics from the University of Liverpool, examining Muslim identities from a comparative perspective, using the examples of Britain, Germany and the Czech Republic. Her current research interests focus on how religious and cultural experiences contribute to one’s identity in contemporary globalised world.

Dr Yvonne Inall was recently awarded a PhD in History from the University of Hull, undertaking an archaeological examination the role of spearheads in Iron Age Britain. As part of her doctoral thesis Yvonne conducted a review of British Iron Age burial practices, with a particular focus on martial burials. She is now assisting Dr Malcolm Lillie with the long durée component of the Remember Me Project: ‘Deep in Time: Meaning and Mnemonic in Archaeological and Diaspora Studies of Death’.

Malcolm Lillie has been an archaeologist for 30 years. He currently integrates two specialist areas, the study of earlier prehistoric human remains and the study of wetlands into his research activities. Since 1999 Malcolm has undertaken studies of human remains from Britain, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Turkey and other regions of Europe, which are aimed at understanding social structures, diet and pathology in archaeological populations. Death and Memorialisation are fundamental aspects of his work in human remains analysis and the current project offers an opportunity for this area for research to be refined in an exciting new direction by linking the attitudes of the past directly into the recent historic and modern contexts.

Sociologist Michael Drake led the project research focused on the framing and representation of private grief in the context of public mourning, and on the social identity of the soldier and the military institution in the reporting and social commentary of military deaths in late modernity in the UK between Nov 2015 until August 2017 when he passed away suddenly (please see news for further details).

Guest Contributors

In addition to our regular contributors, the Remember Me blog posts a number of contributions made by guest-bloggers. These blogs cross a range of topics around the themes of remembrance and memorialisation. Some of our recurring guest-bloggers are:

Lee Karen Stow is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Hull’s Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation. In December 2015 she visited Sierra Leone as a Research Assistant on the Remember Me Diaspora case study directed by Dr Nicholas Evans. Lee is also currently studying for an MA Journalism by Research at the University of Lincoln.